


meet-cutes are only for the movies

by thewindwarns



Category: Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-06
Updated: 2012-05-07
Packaged: 2017-11-01 14:54:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/358092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewindwarns/pseuds/thewindwarns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five occasions, given time, Jason and Reyna might have been something more.  Various stand-alone AU scenarios, with spoilers for <i>The Son of Neptune</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. in which they are teenage mortals, living it up on the west coast

**Author's Note:**

> Title: meet-cutes are only for the movies  
> Fandom: Percy Jackson & the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus  
> Word Count: 682 words  
> Characters/Pairings: Jason/Reyna and Jason/Piper, with mentions of Thalia and Mrs. Grace.  
> Summary: Five occasions, given time, Jason and Reyna might have been something more.  
> Notes: Each part varies in style and AU-ness, from "could be pre-TLH if you want it to be" to "indulge me by suspending your disbelief as you read this crack!fic where everyone happens to be in the same place at the same time instead of opposite seaboards." Nothing super spoilery, though it makes reference to _The Lost Hero_ and _The Son of Neptune_.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus.

one. in which they are teenage mortals, living it up on the west coast

There are times Jason wishes he'd followed his sister out east, but then his mother will smile, kissing him on the cheek in that way of hers, as if to say she is grateful he didn't run away from home too. He knows, though, that Thalia hadn't, not really; she'd just packed up her things, enrolled in a boarding school, promising to always look out for him, and that was that. Jason hadn’t been old enough to go with her, but by the time he was, their mother had fully cleaned up her act and he felt too guilty to do anything but stay. It's only later, much later, when he's visiting Thalia in New York that she confesses: her teacher, Ms. Juno, had told her the scholarship was something only a fool would turn down and lose. (Jason is never resentful, ever grateful for all those moments that his beloved sister had kept the monsters of their less-than-perfect childhood at bay.)

His mother steadily works her way back up into the limelight, getting better and better roles until one day her agent calls, bursting with the news that she'll be starring opposite none other than A-lister _Tristan McLean_. She's not the main love interest by a long shot, but his mother waves her hand and says it doesn't matter, because no man, fictional or otherwise, could ever measure up to his father in a million years. (Jason wouldn't know; he's never had the pleasure of meeting him.)

The movie is an action-packed thriller full of warring gods, but it's not the stunts or the special effects that catch Jason's eye. It's a girl that looks positively bored on set, and he learns -- by asking no less than three members of the crew -- that her name is Piper. There are other things that he finds out about her, like the fact that she speaks fluent French and doesn't eat meat and clutches tightly at his hand when they sit in the back of theaters, watching horror films during matinees. (He discovers the last two on their first and second date, respectively.) She's charming and sweet and smart, and even Thalia teases him that he's found his first love, giving them her seal of approval.

Everything's perfect until they grow up and apart, and it's with reluctance that they make their goodbyes. "Friends?" Piper asks.

"Of course," he replies, and he means it. They write constantly, even when she goes to another far off school that's practically in the wilderness, and he rather likes the fact that they're still a part of one another's lives even if they're no longer together.

Then summer comes and he is sitting in his room, reading up on gladiators when his mother knocks on his door, script in hand. "I'll be flying to Seattle in a couple days to start filming," she says, "so why don't you and Thalia come visit me there?" He's got nothing but time to kill until his sister can request vacation to meet them all, so he buys an Amtrak ticket for the Coast Starlight route, even though it's faster to fly and he has a love-hate relationship with the sea. (It's pretty and it's cool and all, but sometimes he feels like the waves are out to get him when he wastes long days away at the beach, being laughed at by friends for how he struggles with the surf.)

The train stops in San Francisco and when he gets back on after a brief stretch, he sees a girl struggling just a bit to get her suitcase up on the overhead bins. When he offers her a hand, she thanks him, smoothing out her purple dress and sliding gracefully into the empty seat in his row. They chat for a while and he learns that she grew up on a small island, owns two very rare dogs, and is heading north to visit her sister. Her name is Reyna and he repeats it to himself even when she falls asleep. (Next stop? He's asking for her number.)


	2. in which juno chose annabeth and reyna to be switched

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word Count: 671 words  
> Characters/Pairings: Mainly gen-Reyna, with slight Jason/Reyna, Leo/Reyna, Percy/Reyna, and background Percy/Annabeth.

two. in which juno chose annabeth and reyna to be switched

When Reyna jolts awake, she's holding the hand of an unfamiliar boy that grins at her. "Whoa, whoa, Sleepy Head, it's just me." It takes her a moment, then two, to get a sense of her surroundings but it all seems wrong, like she's been living in a dream and hasn't really woken up just quite yet. The boy looks at her expectantly and she thinks, "I should know you," and it's only when another girl calls them that she gets a sense of her name and his. "Reyna, Leo, _come on_!"

Then everything happens much too fast with Dylan and Coach Gleeson and the sword she doesn't realize she's been carrying, and _especially_ the boy on the flying horse that tells her to keep steady. His name is Percy Jackson and she feels a sting of familiarity but can't quite place it, and when she tries to speak, her tongue gets stuck and all she blurts out is _peanut butter_. He's nice enough not to laugh, though she thinks he wants to, even when his face is etched with worry over Annabeth. (That's another name she can't quite place and it eats at her.)

Things don't get much better from there. She's an amnesiac, a demigod, and an unclaimed _Roman_ at that. Leo finds his calling and Piper gets her blessing, but she, daughter of _someone_ gets free lodging in Cabin 11. That is until Ares, god of war, makes a surprise appearance and she is nothing less than mortified when he announces that while they're not related, he's doing a favor for a friend and so all the campers better treat her right. The head counselor glares at her as though she's an enemy, and for just a second she thinks she might have preferred evading the Stoll twins' pranks as Clarisse La Rue seems decidedly more dangerous.

Thalia, though -- Artemis' lieutenant that has no reason to reassure her -- tells her not to worry. "You have a sister?" she asks.

"I can't remember. Why?"

The Huntress shrugs. "You just look like someone I've come across in my travels while we've been searching for Annabeth. No chance you're from Seattle, is there?" Reyna shakes her head. "Someplace warm, originally. Maybe Hawaii?" For some reason, she wants to ask if this girl has any siblings too, and when she does, Thalia turns her head away. "I used to." They don't push the conversation much further than that.

The quest happens, and despite the awe she should feel at the success of their rescue of Hera, it's Medea's taunt that lingers. (“We’re more alike than you know.”) Reyna wants to laugh, because really, at this point everyone knows more about her than she does, but she feels a pull towards something -- or someone -- instead.

The memories trickle back slowly, just names at first, but soon enough she can start to remember some of her friends. Her childhood, though, remains distant, an untraceable island floating in the sea. And there's a boy, just one, that eludes her, that makes her feel guilty about the way Leo looks at her and the way she wants to look at Percy, even when he spends day and night focused on finding his girlfriend, a demigod she's come to respect from all the stories she's heard. She wants to meet this girl, wants to shake her hand, and say, "You are so lucky to be so loved."

It's nearly summer when Percy tells her about the fireworks and she smiles at the fact that he's practically asking her to watch them with him. She's all about honor, knows they're only friends, and good ones at that, but it's nice to know she's appreciated, that he considers her one of them despite her questionable lineage. The colors streak across the sky, the explosions booming like thunder, and it's only then that she can finally put a name to the face that's been haunting her dreams, that curved smile with the tiniest scar. "Jason," she breathes.


	3. in which they are workout buddies, and the entirety of camp is their gym

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word Count: 1423 words  
> Characters/Pairings: (one-sided) Jason/Reyna, with appearances from Bobby and Dakota.

three. in which jason and reyna become workout buddies, and the entirety of camp is their gym

Divine parentage does not guarantee a place in the upper echelons of Camp Jupiter; honor and respect do. Jason learns this the hard way. He is small for his age and scrawny to boot, a skinny little stick that wields Roman blades with difficulty. There are three things he likes most from a young age: challenging Dakota to Mythomagic games, spending long days in the parks of New Rome playing Frisbee, and building elaborate model airplanes from paper and wood. He’s no Hercules, has no incredible feats to his name, but he likes to think he hasn’t done anything to make his father something other than proud. 

Jason never really expects to be named praetor, not when there are older and wiser legionnaires from better regarded cohorts far more deserving than him. No one else in camp particularly does either, especially once Reyna the wunderkind arrives from her magical island and pretty much secures the crown. But everything changes one summer when he hits puberty full force: growth spurt, voice break, facial hair and all. After that, sea monsters fear him and girls, well, they just can’t get enough. Gwen teases him to no end, wondering if he hadn’t bumped into Venus on his quest and received a blessing that he was sworn to secrecy not to reveal, and most girls go out of their way to flirt. Reyna though, remains positively _cordial_.

He can’t decide how to feel about her apparent neutrality on the subject of his sudden surge in popularity –- being of the Fifth Cohort, he feels like the opinion of the obvious-praetor-to-be _matters_ \-- so he follows along with her ambivalence. He nods politely when she does, responds to her inquiries about the weather with short but accurate forecasts, and keeps a reasonable distance between them when they are paired up to spar. They do this for a year or so, until one day Jason wakes up early and decides he needs a change in scenery, and what better way to do that than to run?

Jason knows the ins and outs of Camp Jupiter, the shortcuts and secret passages and best spots for quiet study and reflection. He should have guessed that Reyna, newly elected praetor that she is, would need to know so too, but he is still surprised on the fifth occasion that they awkwardly cross paths while jogging. (And the morning after that, and so on and so forth.) The half-sincere apologies continue for a week before Bobby rudely wakes him up with a pillow to the face. “Your girlfriend’s been knocking. Unlike you, _I_ need my beauty sleep, so just find out what she wants so I can go back to bed.”

Jason answers the door, groggy with drowsiness, and sees no one other than _Reyna_. “Here,” she says, tossing him a rolled tube of paper. He catches it easily, doesn’t blink when he sees that she’s handed him a detailed, hand-drawn map. “I took the initiative of charting your route and mine, so we don’t bump into each other all the time, as it’s become apparent that we’re maintaining similar schedules.”

He’s speechless for a moment, unable to discern whether she wants to avoid him or wants him to say that they shouldn’t –- to be honest, girls were so much easier to understand _before_ he started fulfilling prophecies -– but Bobby answers for him. “You two should just resolve the power struggle and run together. You’ll both be praetors anyway. BOOM. Future centurion of the Fifth Cohort out.”

Reyna stares at Jason expectantly and burgeoning leader that he is, he only takes a second before making an executive decision. “Sure,” he croaks.

“Get dressed,” she says, “I’ll only wait five minutes before I leave.” (She isn’t kidding; he learns this when he spends just a moment too long double-knotting his laces and finds himself rushing to catch up.)

\-----

It becomes a standing appointment for the both of them, one they see all the more reason to keep once he is hoisted on the legion’s shield, basking in the glory of victory after toppling the black throne. He doesn’t expect much to change between them, an easy friendship and nothing more. Things don’t, at least not immediately, until he finds himself spending less time flexing his muscles during open hours at the coliseum when he knows a particular group of campers will be watching, and more time making excuses to delay their return trips from New Rome. 

Reyna is particularly thorough, so while she does not object when he suggests making another rounds of edits to their paperwork, he is sure she suspects something of his crush. (She's not _entirely_ blinded by her duty.) Jason considers himself somewhat suave, but not really, so he asks Bobby and Dakota for advice and they tell him to stick to his best lines. “Reyna might be Reyna,” they say, “but she’s still a girl.” (He probably should have raised an eyebrow at that, but it wasn’t as though they _usually_ steered him wrong.)

On any other day, Jason and Reyna would use their morning run as an opportunity to patrol the camp’s borders and go over the agenda for upcoming senate meetings, but this is the first time that Jason is trying out familiar words on the one person he never thought he'd have reason to, but here she is, stretching during one of their water breaks and readjusting the loose hairs that have tumbled out of her braid. (She looks nothing less than absolutely beautiful.)

"Hey Reyna,” he begins, the memorized words flowing out easily, “would you like to see San Francisco's skyline with me?"

"I've seen it many times, Jason."

He is not discouraged by strike one, not when he has a full and tested arsenal in ready supply. "But not from above, right? Like at night?"

"I don't need to hold your hand to go up in the air when I have a pegasus that can, you know, _fly_ in the dark."

Other demigods might have stepped down, but Jason knew Reyna well enough to tell that she wasn’t irritated. Yet. "How about this -- have you ever been right in the middle of a thunderstorm?"

"Why would I want to? I grew up on an island with climate control."

It takes him a moment to remember the next line, one he didn’t usually have to resort to, but he supposed he rather liked that she was making him work. "Have you been craving cheeseburgers? Because they have this whole secret menu at McHale's that only I--"

"Jason, you should probably stop now before you get to the tenth thing on your list. I _am_ friends with other girls in camp."

To be honest, he had conveniently forgotten about that fact, as had his two co-conspirators, and he wondered why he hadn’t pushed harder for multiple contingency plans. (“It’s fail proof,” Bobby had said. “Everybody loves you, man,” Dakota had assured him. “Okay,” he had stupidly agreed. He's a teenage boy, alright?) She leaves him tongue-tied and so he opts for the next best thing: playing it cool, even if he is practically dying from embarrassment. "Aren't you at least flattered by my valiant attempts to woo you?"

"Not particularly. Though, you know, there are other ways you could impress me..." Reyna takes a long sip of water, and it briefly crosses his mind that she’s doing this on purpose, to get back for the time she had to listen to Octavian whine after he had skipped out early to go to Mythomagic Con that one day. (He couldn’t help it – they were re-releasing a special holographic edition of his namesake!)

"Is that a challenge?"

"If you want it to be."

His heart skips a beat and he sends a silent prayer up to Venus as he musters up the strength to deliver his next words as smoothly as possible. "Well, then. I'll race you back to the villas and I'll show you _exactly_ what I can do." 

He moves to retie his shoelaces, playing the part of the ever nonchalant, when he hears her yell from ahead of him. "That's only if you get there first! And no cheating! My hounds will know!"

Jason curses under his breath. What good was mastery of the wind if you couldn't use it to your advantage?  



	4. in which danger strikes much later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word Count: 1278 words  
> Characters/Pairings: Jason+Reyna

_four. in which danger strikes much later_

Ruling in peacetime is never easy -- there are always monsters to vanquish and prophecies to fulfill -- but it is decidedly more predictable than to lead the legion in ending a war. Reyna takes comfort in this, feels the burden on her shoulders lessen just a bit when the world has a chance to quiet down.

Marina takes her out to lunch far from New Rome, just the two of them, shortly after she steps down and Jason is raised high upon a shield. "So," she says, "how would you say things are between you and Grace? And be honest."

Reyna puts down her tea and then shrugs. "Fine, I guess. We've never been particularly close since we never went on quests together, but he seems level-headed enough. And very obviously _not_ Octavian."

The older girl sighs, shifting her vegetables across her plate with a fork, lining them up in a familiar battle formation. "Reyna, I'm going to say this as both your friend and former co-praetor. Camp Jupiter prides itself on being egalitarian, but sometimes... I just want to warn you that the older legionnaires might give you a hard time and expect you to defer to Jason. Not only because his dad is Jupiter, but because he's a guy. Now that we're in the process of rebuilding as opposed to fighting, there are a few that will probably want to stick you with the bureaucratic stuff and let Jason lead the war games and give all the speeches."

"Oh." Reyna grows quiet, unsure of how to respond, though she should have known from her previous conversations with Hylla that this was probably coming.

Marina pats her gently on the arm. "Don't worry, Rey. In our time working together, I know you've never been a pushover. Just don't -- don't feel pressured to give in to what others want, when it isn't right for you. And you and Jason can be as close or as distant as you feel comfortable being."

She senses something else beneath the surface, realizes exactly why Marina had been unusually silent on a particular subject of great interest throughout the course of the day. "Did you and Tony...?"

"Yeah, last week. It wasn't working out."

"I'm sorry, Marina. If I had known, I wouldn't have brought it up."

"No, it was for the best. Once we stopped being co-praetors and went our separate ways, we found out we had less in common than we thought. But enough about that. Tell me about your plans. Where do you see yourself after all of this?"

\-----

They work unexpectedly well together once they get past their individual personality quirks, dividing up duties and speaking in turn, finding a balance between what they're good at and what they want to learn. Jason still loiters around the Fifth Cohort's barracks whenever he can, and Reyna makes it a point to have meals with her friends from the First, but they are never necessarily opposed to spending their more leisurely hours with one another. They spar, mostly, and occasionally debate, but Reyna finds that she rather likes it and slowly but surely, their relationship begins to warm from mostly professional to a little shy of being best friends.

She's smart and observant, so when her birthday arrives and her friends find themselves all mysteriously too busy to spend time with her, she is hardly surprised when Jason invites her out to dinner at peak party planning time.

"So, will you let me visit you at Stanford?"

"Will you even have time to? I'm sure you'll be busy living it up at Berkeley, given all that tutelage you received under Dakota and his siblings."

Jason laughs. "You caught me. My real name is actually Party Animal Extraordinaire. But seriously, it'd be good to keep in touch. It was nice getting to know you over the past couple of years, especially since we never really had the chance to go on a quest together. Sometimes I even wondered if our parents conspired to keep us apart."

"It was probably because you and your friends were so _welcoming_ to me when I first arrived! My mother took offense!"

Jason starts sputtering and she has to wait a moment for him to regain his composure. "For the last time, it was our divine reflexes! How was I supposed to know that Bobby would tackle you when I raised my sword at Hylla? But I do apologize for the one hundred and fiftieth time if it makes any difference."

"Hmm... I'll have to consider it. The last one hundred and forty nine pleas fell a little flat." She maintains a straight face for as long as possible, but bursts into a fit of laughter when Jason stoops so low as to give her puppy dog eyes.

It's late when they finally make it back to camp, and she can feel just the slightest bit of tension between them, one she hadn't noticed the presence of before. Reyna wonders if it's because this is one of the last occasions they'll have time to themselves like this, and before she knows it she's questioning if they'll end up like other co-praetors before them, the ones that fall back into being casual acquaintances once their service ends.

"Reyna?"

"Yeah, Jason?"

"There's something I should tell you."

"Oh. If it's about visiting, you should know by now that I'm only joking when I say--"

"No, it's not that. I, um, I decided to defer for a year, and look for my sister."

She stops in her tracks. "Have you heard word, then? I know you heard about some sightings."

He shakes his head. "Not from her directly. It's like there's a fog -- Mist-induced, maybe -- but I just _know_ she's out there."

Reyna reaches for his hand. "I happen to have some experience in tracking down long lost sisters and can give you a few pointers, if you'd like."

"Of course. You know how well I fare without your wise guidance. And before you punch me, I'm being serious!"

She's half-tempted to hit him anyway, but settles for rolling her eyes. They walk forward in comfortable silence for a while, nearing the gates, when Jason starts to speak again. "Reyna, this is probably the worst timing for it since we're only going to be here for a few more months, but there's something else I wanted to ask you --"

Reyna never finds out exactly what he means to say because _that's_ the moment her friends jump out and yell _surprise_. It's only later, when her best friend tells her how instrumental Jason was to planning the entire party that she realizes what she would have answered yes to. She thinks of Marina and Tony and all the others that came before them, and allows herself to imagine a future where they're a pair that lasts.

\-----

Reyna sits at her desk, getting an early start on her essay on _The Aeneid_ while waiting for Jason's call. It never arrives, but she hears from a praetor instead. The voice on the other line is out of breath, _worried_ even.

"Is Jason, is Jason with you?"

"No. He was supposed to get in touch once he arrived at the bus station, but I figured he'd been delayed with the thunderstorm and all." As soon as she says the words, a prickling feeling rises up in her throat.

"Reyna, I have some bad news. We've just confirmed that both Juno and Jason have gone missing and Octavian says that it's just a matter of time before the Senate moves to declare war."

"On who?"

"The Greeks."


	5. in which jason starts to remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word Count: 578 words  
> Characters/Pairings: Jason/Reyna

_five. in which jason starts to remember_

Camp gossip often offered conflicting accounts, but truth was that Jason and Reyna went on two -- count them, _two_ \-- dates before he was swept up in Juno's grand scheme. Except for the fact that Reyna considered them a simple continuation of their semi-monthly praetor meals in New Rome instead of the epic romantic milestones the son of Jupiter envisioned they were, their outings went quite well. (Gwen tried to convince him that he should probably clarify things with his close friend, but Jason firmly believed that he and Reyna had finally taken the giant leap onto the path of true love, if all their shy glances and rushed apologies upon accidental brushes were any indication of Venus' blessings.)

Their first date is the traditional dinner and a movie. It happens by accident, when everyone conveniently has to cancel just hours before their group outing. That is, everyone _except_ Reyna. They watch a silly film that Jason can only remember half the plot of -- he was distracted, alright? -- and debate about historical inaccuracies over cheeseburgers and milkshakes. Reyna doesn't make mention of the fact that it's just the two of them alone, so he doesn't either. (That's not to say he's not thinking about it the entire time.)

Their second is a picnic in the park. He makes his famous no-bake peanut butter cookies and she brings two thermos full of hot chocolate, and they sit in the shade of the trees. Reyna never complains about the autumn chill, and Jason admires her all the more for it, though it does make things much more difficult when he tries to be suave when offering her his jacket. She scoffs at him, reminds him that she is always prepared, and merely takes her purple scarf out instead.

It takes him a while to get her to talk about something other than the Chamber of Commerce meeting they've just attended -- like the fact that she's letting him hold her hand or that she's wearing the bracelet that he gave her for her birthday -- but he manages to change the subject of conversation when she finally runs out of steam. (He's known her long enough to realize that when she's nervous, she talks full and fast and uninterrupted, ready with a steely glare at the very hint of contradiction.)

"It's easier," she finally says, "to act like this is just business as usual."

"Yeah, I guess so." He isn't complaining, not really, not when she had agreed to stay out late with him, even though they would have normally headed back to camp by this time on any other occasion.

"I don't want us to be _'us'_ because it's expected, Jason."

It takes him a moment to get it, from the way she doesn't avert her eyes, how she sits there quietly, waiting for him to reply. He takes a deep breath, attempting to be his Roman best, cool and calm and collected, when all he feels is a sudden giddiness, like he's had one too many sips from Dakota's flask. "The feeling's mutual, Reyna."

She smiles at him, warns him not to get too ahead of himself when there are long days ahead, and he laughs, because Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, has never been anything but strategic in his planning.

When he's at Camp Half-Blood, conflicted about his feelings towards Piper, this moment is the second thing he remembers about Reyna after her name.


End file.
